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He had his head in his hands, glistening tears dripping from his face, the moonlight only accentuated his suffering.

***

Walking out of a house in the middle of a plain of cracked ground was a blue-haired lady. The moon was shining bright in the dark sky, stars were sparse on this night.

“I suppose this will be my last and final death,” the lady muttered to herself as she walked towards distant lights.

When she reached the glittering lights, there was the sound of a riot. Shouts and yells all merging to form, “Begone with the traitors!” The blue-haired lady, ridden with confusion, slightly hastened her step towards the voices.

The sound of clunking, the sound of a blade.

Her eyes widened considerably. Humans and demons banded together against the ‘traitors’. The first glimpse she got of the situation was of a trail of people getting dragged along, connected by shackles. They were then moved towards the centre of the wooden platform, systematically ‘disposed’ of in groups.

Tears were quick to form, perhaps it was fate that she cried at the same time as that man.

She ran. She sprinted to that stage in a flash.

“It’s the villain!!” the bystanders screamed.

Her eyes showed fury yet her tears were still flowing relentlessly. As the blades came down towards the ‘traitors’ heads, she raised her blade. In a single slash, the wooden structures that supported the blades dropping towards the innocents’ necks were cut cleanly.

The pile of heads on the ground made her throat run dry as her eyes continued to moisten.

She made her way towards the line of people connected with shackles, passing by each link that was immediately cut apart harmlessly as she walked by. Her head was tilted down at the ground, biting her lip as her non-dominant hand clenched tightly enough to draw blood.

‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not coming sooner. I’m sorry you had to leave the world so soon. I’m sorry you had to suffer. I’ll stop now. I’m sorry I’m too weak to avenge you.’

The faintest whisper of a voice could be heard with the wind.

“Corlissa…”

An older man with similar blue hair stood there, simply watching.

Still, on the wooden platform, she turned towards the crowd.

“I’m tired of this. If you all are so narrow-minded as to murder innocent lives, what is the point of saving this world? I give up on being a villain. I’m a selfish piece of sh*t, so I don’t want to save you anymore. Why? Tell me, please. Why do I need to do this?”

Her eyes were wide, crying with a crazed expression, the people could easily see the expression that was on her face. The Duke took a step back involuntarily, perhaps it was out of fear due to the sudden change in the lady’s personality.

A group of men had entered the scene, they were heartless and weren’t even phased as they glanced at the bodiless heads.

One man with forest green hair and golden eyes, the Grand Mage.

“Explain, if you have deceived the Kingdom, we will take it as treason thus you will be immediately rid of.”

“You people only come together when there’s a common enemy. Once I die you will all just go back to being at each other’s throats. You might even go back to having that same hierarchy where humans are thought of as disposable toys in the eyes of the demons.”

“What are you saying, young Veronique?!?”

“It’s exactly as I had stated before I broke the barrier, your lives were replayed for demons to watch. Once you die in one life, you wait until the story ends, then you will be revived, have your memories wiped and then restart your life.”

“You never spoke of this!!” King Merillis exclaimed, directing his anger towards their demon counterparts.

“Do you even know why demons look the same as humans? Do you know why they are doppelgangers? Do you know why even if their human counterpart dies, their demon counterpart stays?” came a mocking voice from the blue-haired lady.

“Demons are born out of the inner desires of humans, someone who has a stark difference in how they treat others and what they want to do to others will have a stronger demon. But the demons also have their reasons for despising humans, the very first demon was shunned by humans even though they were just a truer version of humans,” the lady continued to speak.

The area was now silent, no one dared to utter a word.

“Seeing as how the demons never told the humans, it’s safe to assume that they have yet to reach a state of acknowledging humans as equals or they are finally experiencing the guilt of the treatment. However, demons are true to themselves and do not create facades so it is more likely that they still do not view humans as equals.”

Words of protest erupted from the crowd, trying to rebuttal the words that left the lady’s mouth but with the logical statements expressed, the protests were lacking.

“Today will be the final battle,” the lady expressed with full certainty.

The green-haired Grand Mage spoke again, “Who are you to decide that? Your life is in our hands.”

To his question, Corlissa responded with a mocking laugh, “Did you really think all of you working together actually drove me into a corner? My power is unrivalled without a doubt, no matter how many people you send at me I will fling them away.”

In response to this, members of the 1st and 2nd Knight Squadron led by Rendall Lancelot and Orvon Geraint respectively lined up in preparation for war. The blue-haired lady’s eyes silently and subtly darkened at the sight, a slight tinge of sadness remaining as she jumped away into the night waiting for their first move.

For the subjugation of ‘his own’ daughter, Duke Veronique was tasked with overseeing the operation, perhaps it was a test of loyalty but in the end, it was a brutal order.

The Duke’s voice rang out over the uncertain mutters of the soldiers, “Despite what she may have just said, it does not take away from the fact that we did indeed injure her previously, she will be weaker now and our chances have increased. This will be the deciding battle that will end with her death, do not falter.”

With his small speech, the morale of the soldiers was raised again and with a newfound eagerness to murder the lady despite how immoral it sounded to a third party, they filed out per their preorganised strategy.

There were groups of people heading out in smaller numbers to scout out the area in search of their target, it was a slow start to the battle where flares were fired into the air at the sight of a blur of a shadow so that the direction of her movements would be able to be predicted. It was quite a bad plan with many loopholes as the young Veronique was not lacking in seeing through such plans.

She used her magic to send out clones of herself to trick her enemies into thinking that she was moving in such a direction while she stayed still observing the situation. What she forgot to account for was her power.

Although the girl was indeed excellent at controlling her mana, with the commands that she sent out to her clones; an external use of mana, some of her large reservoir of mana was leaking out. To a Grand Mage that had been well versed in both the practical and theoretical use of mana, her position was given out quite easily.

2 groups circled the building that the lady was hiding in, hoping to flank her from both sides.